Syntax Issue in Python urllib2?

Question

Am trying to test out urllib2. Here's my code:

import urllib2
response = urllib2.urlopen('http://pythonforbeginners.com/')
print response.info()
html = response.read()
response.close()

When I run it, I get:

Syntax Error: invalid syntax. Carrot points to line 3 (the print line). Any idea what's going on here? I'm just trying to follow a tutorial and this is the first thing they do...

Thanks, Mariogs

Answer 1

In Python3 print is a function. Therefore it needs parentheses around its argument:

print(response.info())

In Python2, print is a statement, and hence does not require parentheses.

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After correcting the SyntaxError, as alecxe points out, you'll probably encounter an ImportError next. That is because the Python2 module called urllib2 was renamed to urllib.request in Python3. So you'll need to change it to

import urllib.request as request
response = request.urlopen('http://pythonforbeginners.com/')

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As you can see, the tutorial you are reading is meant for Python2. You might want to find a Python3 tutorial or Python3 urllib HOWTO to avoid running into more of these problems.